Interesting Ancient Coin I Found

[Stealth Hunter]

Originally Posted by FIREWALL

I emailed the pics of your coin to a local coin dealer.

He'll get back to me and I'll post his reply.

Until then I guess we can speculate if it's a coin, token, or something planted by the tourism bussiness.

Thanks.

[mcf1]

Got it, it's an AR Tetradrachm / sela
it's a greek design from emperor Nero
the front side has the head of Nero and is written "ΝΕΡΩΝ ΚΑΙΣΑΡ" in Greek which means Nero Ceasar.
On the other side is written "ΕΤΟΥΣ" which means year.
And that thing written on the left next to the eagle is the date, the coin was probably created.

Here's a link: http://www.tantaluscoins.com/coins/22304.php

[Raptor1]

I thought about it being a Nero coin, but the Greek letters threw me off (Also other Nero coins have a different-looking portrait of it)

Nice catch. Wonder if it could be from Syacuse (now Sicily) since it was a Greek colony before becoming part of the Roman republic. That might explain the eagle and the crown of weaths and the Greek letters. Just a WAG though. Best of luck getting answers.
Good Hunting

[Raptor1]

Originally Posted by Randomizer

Nice catch. Wonder if it could be from Syacuse (now Sicily) since it was a Greek colony before becoming part of the Roman republic. That might explain the eagle and the crown of weaths and the Greek letters. Just a WAG though. Best of luck getting answers.
Good Hunting

It could be from Greece itself, Nero improved relations with the Greeks by participating in the Olympic Games (Which were conquered by the Romans in 146 BC)

Wouldn't be uncommon for a coin like that to reach Rome, through trade or whatever

[Sailor Steve]

It's fake - the inscription reads "12 B.C.":rotfl:

Seriously, if it's real it's quite a treasure. Pretty awesome, actually.

[Platapus]

Well I don't know what that coin is, but I do hope that once you find out that you let us know.

[CptSimFreak]

Magic question "how much"

[mrbeast]

Thats a wonderful little piece of history you have there Stealth Hunter.

I think little objects like this are fascinating, just think of the thousands of pairs of hands that coin has passed through, the thousands of miles it has travelled from when it was minted all those years ago till it came to you.

Keep good care of it and if you learn anything more about it keep us posted.


BTW, I think we need more theads like this, makes a refreshing change from arguing about politics or global warming etc etc.

If you wanna find out if it's really genuine (and in case it is, very valuable) you might wanna get it carbon dated or something. If it's a fake I doubt the fakers would have gone through the trouble of getting a piece of roman era material and made it of it. I guess the image itself is not necessarily a fool proof indicator of whether or not it's genuine but the age might be.

[Stealth Hunter]

The thing about it is that I've done several basic tests on it. It's too heavy and solid to be aluminum, and the magnet test showed that it wasn't any other regular metal (most other metals are attracted to magnets). I'm pretty sure it is gold, but I'll have to have it looked at.

Here's some of the rials I pulled out:

[Raptor1]

It could be Bronze, is Bronze magnetic?

[mcf1]

Originally Posted by Raptor1

It could be Bronze, is Bronze magnetic?

Nope, bronze isn't magnetic

[Stealth Hunter]

Well, I've agreed to meet a local coin dealer and have him validate its authenticity.

[nikimcbee]

Originally Posted by mcf1

Nope, bronze isn't magnetic

You could send it to me and I could do an EDS on it. That would identify all of the elements in it.